News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

Well . . . here we are, look - half way through the month already, as 2019 speeds past with the same rapidity as 2018, giving us even more nonsense from the Trumpundbrexit community; you couldn't make it up, because if you did, no-one would buy the book - you need a plot that's believable, and nothing happening in Whitehall or Washington at the moment can be believed - even when you see it with your own eyes on the news!

Thanks to Canada for taking that Saudi girl.

Did anyone notice that by 'sculpting' the slices, Terry's (they're not Terry's they're Caramber and Co.!) chocolate orange's lost-weight this Christmas? But they weren't any cheaper!

Still; there's always toys . . . vintage toys; you can't go wrong with vintage toys!

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 19^th January 2019

Brentwood - J&J Fairs (John & Julie Webb)

International hall, Brentwood Centre, Doddinghurst Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9NN

Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com

eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com

Tel. - 01522 880 383 (J & J Webb)

10:00 - Approx. 14:30hrs

Admission £3, seniors £2.50p, 1st child £2

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Sunday 20^th January 2019

Haydock Park - Barry Stockton Fairs

The Exhibition Centre, Haydock Park Racecourse, WA12 0HQ

Web. - http://barrystocktonfairs.co.uk/
Tel. - 01513 343 362
10:30 - 14:30hrs
Admission - Adult £2, Children £0.50p

Kidderminster - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs

Guilt Edge Leisure Centre, Zortech Avenue, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, DY11 7DY

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 14:00hrs

Admission £1.50p

Free parking

Kirkby-in-Ashfield - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend)

Festival Hall, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, NG17 7DJ

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission fee unknown, accompanied under-16's free

Free parking, refreshments

Orpington - SRP Toyfairs

Crofton Halls, Orpington, Kent, BR6 8PR

Web. - www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

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Wednesday 23^rd January 2019

Burton-on-Trent - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend, evening fair)

The Town Hall, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, DE14 2EB

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

18:00 - 20:30hrs

Admission unknown, accompanied under-16's free

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Wednesday 23^rd January 2019

Warwick - Warwick & Warwick

Charlton House, Scar Bank, Millers Road, Warwick, Warwickshire, CV34 5DB

(Auctions held in Court House)

Web. - www.warwick&warwick.com

eMail - richard.beale@warwick&warwick.com

Tel. - 01926 499 031

Facsimile - 01926 491 906

Catalogue on-line, printed version available on request

Trains, die cast, model soldiers and other toys

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Thursday 24^th January 2019

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

01642 750 616

General toy sale;

"The General Toy sale to be held on the 24th of January features a number of boxed and unboxed models from Corgi, Matchbox, Atlas Dinky, EFE, Lledo, Bburago and many others. There is a collection of Heavy Haulage lots from Corgi Eddie Stobart, and Tekno; Buses and Trams from The Original Omnibus Company, and Creative Master Northcord. Del Prado Fire Engine related groups, Corgi Aviation Archive, Micro Machines, Airfix and other kits, Joel and many others. Plus, also included in the sale are Lego, games, books, jigsaws, Beanie Babies, Star Wars, James Bond Lots including Magazine car issues and a coin operated novelty monkey in a cage."

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Friday 25^th January 2019

Elstree - Excalibur Auctions (day 1 of a 2-day auction, day 2: Saturday 26th January)

The Village Hotel, Elstree, Hertfordshire, WD6 3SB (venue)

Ciltern Buisness Centre, Woodside Road, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 6AA (office)

Web. - www.excaliburauctions.com

eMail - enquiries@excaliburauctions.com

02036 330 913

Free Tea or Coffee

Collectables, posters, memorabilia

Note - not 'Aversham' as advertised elsewhere

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Other Events

Tuesday 22^nd January - Thursday 24^th January 2019

London - The Toy Fair 2019

Olympia London, Kensington, London, w14 8UX (venue - ‘Kensington Olympia Exhibition Centre’)

Bastion, Unit 4.07 Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6JJ (organisers)

Web. - www.toyfair.co.uk

eMail - toyfair19@eventreferance.com

Hotline - 0845 868 5820

09:00 - 18:00hrs - Tuesday and Wednesday

09:00 - 17:30hrs - Thursday

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here -  FOR FREE  - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

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Couple of links:

Modelscene

Tom Clague sent me a link to a brilliant new set of figures from Modelscene - 5300 Cricket Players! Given how few cricketers there are out there - in any scale - these are a much needed addition to the oeuvre, although it got me thinking that there are probably some garage/after-market whitemetal ones out there somewhere . . . anyone know of other cricketers? And the 1st-link is a 'must' to follow - it's all Tom's own work!

Statuary

It's lifesize!

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Q is for Question Time - Car & Boat

As a follow-up to yesterday's post on bar-b-queing/hunting/exploring apparent-Africans, and in part to illustrate the type of set I think they might belong to; there's this:

The bag is crinkly cellophane and probably is the original carrier, however it has no sign of staples (so no header card) nor tape (so always open, but folded closed, so should probably have had a box, but the shape of the bag seems to preclude the kind of long, thin, box we saw with the Laurie-branded set here.

Therefore I suspect maybe a larger box with some other bags; a bag of trees or shrubs, a tent, camping accessories or another vehicle and the whole in a larger, flatter box, a bit like this circus set (which also has a mix of 'styrene and 'ethylene)? It's that sort of thing I was wondering about for yesterday's figures; a Jeep or Land Rover, trees, some animals to interact with the spearman, maybe a white hunter or explorer, a cage . . . ? It's all conjecture!

An oddity with this set is that while all the components of the car and trailer, along with the two figures are 100% soft polyethylene, fully dismantle'able or clip-together, the boat is 100% polystyrene and glued together - possibly to ensure it floats, by sealing the join between the deck and hull?

Like the car/caravan linked to above, there is a lot of play value in this (whether or not is was part of a larger set), but it is the next level down as far as production-budget/quality (and aimed-for retail price-bracket?) is concerned and may have been an unbranded generic sold at beach-side kiosks, where it would have been pushing-out the domestic products of Kleeware, Poplar, Rafael Lipkin, Thomas and Tudor Rose, et al as the 1960's slid into the 1970's

The figures; there are some similarities with yesterday's African chaps, but the differences are stronger, with the pin-marks in the diving figures base, the paint carried round the figures and a more opaque plastic, they are also 50mm though, and there was a lot of this stuff around, and more remain to be ID'd . . . a brand or even just a set title for this would be a start!

Further to and rather rendering the above superfluous; Peter Evans just emailed me on yesterday's Africans . .

". . . Those native figures are from a Safari set made in Hong Kong. Sold in Woolworth's in the 1960s

There are two more natives, one carrying a case on his head - case was a separate piece and a native holding a bow.

There were two white hunters. Both wearing shorts and based on the Swoppet cowboy prisoner body and the firing rifle body.

As far as I can remember it was a carded set with about four copies of Britains Lion, Panther, Gorilla and chimp

No idea who the brand was but definitely Hong Kong . . . Peter"

Cheers Peter - So a carded set!

While looking at the circus set just now, fetching the link, the bag's are almost identical, so probably an unbranded 'generic' boxed set for the above 'Beach Bums'!

L is for Lambeth Walk, D is for Doing It!

Look what I photographed on Mercator Trading's table back in September . . .

. . . it's the Lambeth Walking couple from Britains in hollow-cast lead and . . . er . . . that's it - box ticked! Oi!

♫♪♫  " Any time you're Lambeth way,

Any evening, any day,

You'll find us all

Doing the Lambeth Walk.

Every little Lambeth gal,

With her little Lambeth pal,

You'll find them all

Doing the Lambeth Walk.

Everything's free and easy,

Do as you darn well pleasy,

Why don't you make your way there

Go there, stay there.

Once you get down Lambeth way

Every evening, every day,

You'll find yourself

Doing the Lambeth Walk.oi!"  ♪♪♫♪

Q is for Question Time - African Natives?

I see the emperor with no clothes added a monkey to my Deluxe Reading post, so nice to see him so happy in my dust! I told you you'd all be the beneficiaries if TJF raised his game, trouble is he hasn't raised it as much as I thought he might! I wonder if he can add anything to these?

These are a bit of a puzzle, however there are a few clues which may help ID them by jogging someone's memory, and their 'story' as far as I am concerned (and the clues) has changed over the years!

I first found the guy on the left (50mm, soft polyethylene), and wondered if he may be from a die-cast or plastic car set, as he seemed to be as likely carrying a picnic on the beach in his Hawaii-shorts as he was carrying White Bossy's stuff in the ulhu! Particularly that manufactured-looking, US-style, lunch-box in his left hand, which is more Bondi Beach than bondu-baggage!

I also considered that he might be a cake decoration; the splash of paint being the driver of those particular thoughts?

However, I then picked-up a pair of what I guess is slightly earlier figures due to their extra/second colour (hair/packages), and in conversation with Mr Morehead (of PW fame) and Mr Begg - who were present - it was decided they must be Hong Kong Africans (which happen to be unmarked - not that uncommon), due to the poor paint - none at all on the rear is a Lucky/LP trick, and totem poles, very few totem poles get turned by the painter!

There they sat for a while . . . well until I took this shot the other day - with a second spearman coming-in at some point. These four were all in storage and I'd forgotten - when I shot the images - that another has come in more recently . . .

. . . who - as you can see - is another (early?) two-colour chap, equally undecorated on the rear, and another 'carrier'. His 'baggage' is even more contemporary-looking than the other chaps 'lunch-box', being like a military 'Norwegian' liquid/hot-food container . . . or a fire-extinguisher?!

Which-  I think - brings us back to die-cast or plastic vehicles, maybe a safari Land Rover type; the spearmen just scaring a predator or sorting some game for the camp-fire? Equally they could - still - be in the cake-decoration frame, but it's a long-shot now, although another long-shot - given the painting - might be board-game playing pieces, with maybe a forth - yellow (?) - one, out there somewhere?

There is something of the Africans from the Manurba-Heinerle-Layla school about them, particularly in the translucence to the thin areas of plastic, but the bases are too-thin I feel and the paint is a bit of a barrier to those thoughts. I favour the plastic safari play-set theory; Hong-Kong, 1970's?

As the first four to turn-up made two pairs, a typical accessory-figure count for one of those cheap plastic vehicles (cheap then - have you seen where prices are going on them now!), the fact that a third has turned-up raises the additional questions of how many poses were there and whether any others are as war-like as Master 'Spearman'?

Has anyone had one, got one, or remember the name of it - whatever it was, or do you posses more sculpts/poses?

T is for Toy Fair 2018 Reports - Terra by Battat

Well, less than seven days to the next Toy Fair, I thought I'd better clear the decks of the remains of last year's! This is actually a combination of the Toys Fair shots, some catalogue-scans and the last of the shelfies Brian B sent some time before the Toy Fair, most of which have already been included in other posts.

Starting with the dinosaurs, these are quite exquisite with really nice colouring, it's funny; not only are Battat trying to break into a Schleich/Papo duopoly (the triumvirate [tripartite?] surrendered to them by Britians a while ago now), but when you look at some of the cheapie-toy dinosaurs these days - they've all raised their game, both in sculpting and the realism of the decoration, as referenced by modern/extant snakes and tropical birds - each of which is a good starting point.

However back to Battat these are all ten sculpts in the catalogue a year ago and while covering all the common or 'headline' types, there are one or two less obvious species in the line.

On the left the dinosaurs, on the right the mini-animal tubs, along with the counter display unit (CDU) for larger farm animals, apparently 2-each of the larger animals and 1-each of the smaller, there's less adherence to scale here, especially the sheep and pig.

Those mini-animal tubs; they seem to be aimed at the party-circuit/market, with not just duplicates but multiples of every sculpt? You feel that one-of-each of pairs in smaller headed-carded bags. Also they are a bit 'bright' and you wonder if they are either bought-in or simply made with less love, for a budget end-price! Note that the 'Reptiles' also contains amphibians.

Close-ups from Mr Berke of the Wild Animals (in the catalogue but not on show last year) and the REP-TILES [with amphibians], at 60 pieces it's obvious that there may be as many as 5 or 6 of each animal in the tub - a likely minimum of 5? Which will make it easy to collect these when they start appearing in Charity shops, but will also mean the duplicates will be near-impossible to off-load (if you're a dealer) other than by gifting to younger relative!

Also from Brian we have two of the 'family' group sets; lions and gorillas, the later look quite nice, but the former are not so hot, there's a slight simplicity or naivety to the sculpts, the lioness particularly looks slightly cartoonish and while manes are never easy, this one is poorer than most.

There's cats . . . and a cat tree! But again there's a bit of a mix, the rabbit set looks very good, bt I'd walk straight-past the dog firehouse, not only does in look a bit daft (do people actually have shit like that for their dogs?) but again the animals are a bit cartoony, although the lioness looks better in this sample!

Also it's nice to see separate sculpts for Brown and Polar bear families, instead of a paint change. Zebra's are poor, but so are just-about all model zebras - against the real thing, which has a subtly all model-animal companies seem to struggle-with, not the shape; they mostly get the shape, but the markings . . . oh dear!

CDU for the larger animals contains some new sculpts and some of the 'adults' from the family-group boxed-sets. The cheetah has lovely markings but the under-colouring is a bit limp, while the midge-collecting bird on the back of the water-buffalo is a nice touch.

I hope the liner has a hole in it for the giraffe, but how do you stack multiples in a warehouse?!!!

A is for Archive - Titan Toys 'Fun Fings'

We're looking at a scan from a catalogue from the 2007 Toy Fair at Excel, London, here I think, although it could be a few years earlier, but with the next show on the 22nd of this month it seems like a good time to get it out there!

Originally I used to go on a PW ticket, that year I went in my capacity as head of toys at an Internet auction drop-shop outfit (I was head of fuck-all and least said - soonest forgotten, but I did manage to get the junior staff their holiday and sick benefits!), and a few years ago I went as someone else when they sent me the wrong pass (I hope he also went - as me!), last year I snuck in on Peter's pass again!

But this year I will be representing the Small Scale World's Press Office! Oh-yes . . . we have a press officer now - it's me, that's why your emails are never answered on time; Perhaps I should do a FUC's page; Frequently Un-answered Correspondence!

Titan Toys' corporate company hyperbole aside (they look like many other ranges of rack-toys going back to the sixties, even to the boy/girl/neutral colour-coding), they seem to be plugging a new display-rack (dollar tree) which has been grafted to an office-chair!

It's a low-res three-colour image, but we can see . . .

. . . clockwise from top left; mini trains (sans track, most of this type of rack toy give you a circle or oval of track?)*; The Supreme/SP Toys-supplied sets we looked at here; a substantial-looking (for a rack-toy) stunt cycle with jump and a set of those larger farm animals with their peculiar purple-browns and mauve-greys which are starting to become a common part of mixed-lots and charity-shop bags. I didn't crop-out the lizard as he's obvious in the previous image.

* As their (Titan's) own, near contemporary, Cargo Express Train Set did!

K is for Knotty Ash

It's only a real place, somewhere near Liverpool [and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!], home of the late, great Ken Dodd . . . that's Sir 'Doddy' to you! Who was also responsible for the Diddy Men, except, err . . . he wasn't! But he did give them form, and the form is the subject of this box-ticker.

Covered a while ago by Colin Penn in Plastic Warrior magazine (issue 147/2012), from who's article I discovered that they are actually a part of local folk-lore in the area, and that these figures (manufactured by Cherilea) don't represent any specific/named-character from TV or the stage shows . . . for more than that you'll have to read the mag'. As it happens - I think they are at least partly-based on the vinyl 6"-single's artwork?

What I would also add though, is that I don't think these are quite as rare as some prices would have you believe. Having seen a fair-few sets over the years, there's usually at least one full group being offered at the PW show - for instance; I feel they turn-up pretty often, usually as a full set of four.

 Mine were a cheapie (50p each I seem to recall) from a charity shop back in 2011, where they were for sale with the ornaments and nick-nacks, not the toys, presumably because they'd come into the shop with a job lot of such 'white elephant' stuff?  It's my suspicion that many survive in precisely that role? It's the same area of the shops I find my larger Fontanini's or Carrara statuettes when I see them.

Note also: they are quite dapper gentlemen, with each wearing some kind of neck apparel and a hat, along with either-and-or a waistcoat n' braces, and they are all in possession of a pair of spats, very-much 'the men about town'!

News, Views Etc . . . Bits

Show Dates

The ladies at Vectis sent me a press release yesterday with three images to add to the 'Forthcoming Events' post, published last Friday, so I've added them to that post alog with the auction contents blurb.

eMail

I had a mammoth session yesterday afternoon/early evening and I hope I've caught-up with all outstanding eMail traffic, if you think you haven't had a reply you should have/were expecting, let me know - maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

Faceplant

Apparently the mob behind TJF have started a rumor somewhere that I tried to join a FaceBook group for toy soldiers and was refused, I can assure you I am only a member of two such 'groups'; Friends of Plastic Warrior and Plaid Stallions, both of which were by invitation and I'm not terribly active on either, by dint of not having much to do with FaceBook after my initial, over-exuberant enthusiasm back in 2013/14.

Things disappear off the bottom of a FaceBook feed quicker than they do off a blog, and - without decent tagging - are subsequently harder to find, nor do they get picked-up by Googlebot, so don't tend to appear in search results.

You won't find me re-posting things which appeared on a FaceBook group two-days earlier either, but then - being a collector - I have plenty of stuff to produce my own copy from!

I did see the Group in question on my feed once, about three or four months ago, but given one administrator's name, I thought I'd leave them to their own fate, they have been warned here (with empirical evidence) about his fairy-tales!

Toy Soldier HQ

Looking for Russians the other day I noticed that Kent Sprecher has greatly increased the content of the Marx combat/military section, indeed - it's now two sections with the commoner stuff on one page and the oddities on another; both can be navigated-to from a landing-page here.

Help

I don't want to set a precedent and turn SSW into a swap-shop, but I had a nice exchange with a lady from the US who is looking for a 1st version Commonwealth Scots Dancer (painted highlights over flesh-coloured plastic, single backing-card if possible), and if anyone can help her; I can put you in touch.

The reason I'm 'reaching out' is because I get a lot of 'how much is that' eMails (with a link to something on the Blog), I always answer politely that I'm a collector and it's not a sales site, so the things aren't for sale, never to hear from them again, not so much as a 'thank you'!

However Bonnie came back with a nice 'thanks anyway', and explained that she'd got most of the set and hoped to track the Scottish lady down, so I said I'd look out for one, but if you have a spare, I know where it can be loved.

Barney Brown

I've missed two updates from Barney over Christmas, quite a bit of the new stuff has already sold but there are still some choice pieces to be had on his website Herald Toys & Models.

What?

You want a picture of some toys?

Oh go-on then! 'H is for How They Come In'; Today (Monday)'s run up the High Street of the teeming metropolis of Fleet (two horses and an out-of-sequence post-code!).

Three purchases from two charity shops, for a total of less than 3-quid which gave me 15 items from six sources!

As it was a couple of months into 2018 that the first fairies came in we still seem to be in a fairy-year, that's the fourth or fifth recent 'lot'! She's made of a sort of foamed 'new type' eraser rubber which gives her a slightly furry surface! And what is it with me and eraser robots . . . from charity shops! They aren't going to fit in the new tub, I've only just given it to them, we've only just looked at it and they've already outgrown it!

The flag goes with the tree little astronauts - which I suspect will prove to be Pioneer - while the rocket and Luna Buggy (or Luuar Rover!) go with the three big chaps - all marked K&M (Wild Republic animals). I must have a session on these as there are a shed-load, but while I've found the lose ones, the boxed examples are still buried in the garage somewhere.

I was only musing on re-doing the old Totem pole posts the other day in an eMail with someone and a new one to the collection (Bully) arrives out of the blue!

I walked away from two Papo knights at £2 each, one dragon-head crested horse and rider, one unicorn pairing, but they were a bit big . . . actually; they were huge! But I may grab them if they are still there tomorrow (Tue.).

Links
The Simpson's finally have a Toy Soldier episode!

Good news story - I'm not the only one to receive presents of toy soldiers!

Mending Dolls

A is for Answer . . . from the Antipodes!

I may have mentioned a parcel from Mr. Sibbald down there in New Zealand? He actually sent four 'things' to the blog, three of which will be Blogged over the next week or two, and while the other things involved multiples of figures; the fourth 'thing' was this single figure, but how useful he turned-out to be:

He's pink . . . he must be Pink!

It's the missing colour from the unknown board-game set I couldn't find in the recent past despite trying various search terms on both Google and feebleBay. But as soon as I saw it (and I may have posited pink as one of the possible colours of the missing figure) I knew where to look.

Not only did the pink give it away, a quick look at the other's revealed the red, blue and brown to look confirmatory familiar, and I eMailed Glenn the same day to say I was sure they came from the Minimodels plant in Havent, as they match some of the figures from the 'Cops and Robbers' Sweeny-branded and Geronimo's Treasure games.

Sir Geldoff of Boomtown auditions for Boyzone!

So it was straight to Boardgamegeek, for searches of Berwick, Condor, Omnia, Tri-Ang, and err . . . the other one . . . Ariel! Nothing! Not a sausage, definitely not a guitarist! So I went to feebleBay and tried Pop Band, Pop Star, Rock Band and Rock Star, Band, Guitar Player and Guitarist (including all the usual Board Game, Vintage, Old, Plastic and Toy Figure prefixes or suffixes). . . some results were too long to be faffed-with, others drew a blank.

I was getting worried; I'd promised Glenn that by the time he read my eMail - which I'd sent in what was the middle of the night down there - I'd know the name of the game and it was beginning to look like I'd drawn a blank . . . again!

"One more note of Tar-rar-rah-boom-di-ay

and you'll be an ex-guitarist mate!"

But discovering in the course of these searches that Waddington's carried versions of some of the games carried by the other companies above - presumably as Waddington's bought them out - and remembering that Waddington's ended-up with the Subbuteo system also linked to Havent through the supply of the Stadden-designed figures, I thought I'd try Waddington's as a search subject.

I tried Waddington's Rock . . . nothing, Waddington's Star (as in rock or pop-star) . . . still nothing, finally Waddington's Pop (obvious; but it took me five or ten minutes to try it!) and BINGO! Two, near-mint, for sale as of last Friday;

Mike Reid's Pop Quiz, 60mm, polystyrene, six board-game pieces, Minimodels for Waddington's, probably, also, a Stadden sculpt?

I don't know, but suspect it might have been sold under other names/titles in other places where Waddington's operated (Oz, NZ, South Africa?) as Mike Reid wouldn't have been known outside the UK, being a British radio DJ!

Anyway; mystery solved . . . thanks to- and thanks; Glenn!

F is for Follow-ups - Recent Posts

Rather than have another 'flurry' I think I'll add one of these to the original post and make a post out of the other two, so it doesn't get to complicated or bitty. Despite my being mostly off-line or out-of-touch, the last three weeks didn't stop a stream of eMails coming-in, among which were various additions to posts, while I myself mooted this first point . . .

. . . in that I mentioned I was sure I had a painted version of one of the figures in Chris's 'Christmas' parcel, so I went digging over the New Year and found the above nugget!

However as you can see, he's not quite the same, being a larger donor of the smaller, undecorated copy-figure Chris sent, which is not to denigrate the contribution, only to worry that there are now probably twice as many to be found as might have seemed, a month ago!

The one I had spirited away in an 'unknown' box ('Spacemen & Astronauts - Human/Humanoid') is marked CHINA, F21 and © M. I. 1987, I suspect the MI is probably Mattel International? But if the F21 is Figure 21 . . . of however many, and if the pirates (capsule toys?) have copied them all, even if it only goes up to 22, that's 41 I'm still/now looking for! I think the Chris-sent ones are capsule toys, I don't know where the MI ones came from?

Following on from my thought that the rocket/trailer combo' the other day probably had an attached tractor unit, Chris sent these shots of his fleet Squadron (I'm sure rockets should be in squadrons!) with three designs from possibly two makers?

Both towed-rockets and artillery; with the rocket in a larger fatter design and the slim-Jim similar to the one we saw the other day.

I like the dressed-stone walling in the background, I thought it may be GeModels, but it's not 'in the book' although it looks vaguely familier?

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Additionally I have added the 'completion' image Chris sent - for the Progresspost the other day - to that post.

Both Chris and Brian Berke also sent me stuff on CMV last week, less that 48hrs apart, and without each knowing the other had, so I will edit those images and add them to the Khaki Infantry page soon, along with another brand I'd forgotten (also courtesy of Chris), and while that was the second sign of the Gods' synergy smiling on the Blog in its eleventh year, the day after the second lot of CMV came in, the God's smiled again, when some kiwi's flew-in, now - flying kiwis - that was a miracle!

Aaaaaaannnnnnd . . . the three-millionth hit went-over on Saturday, I missed it! I said it would likely be the second week of Jan.!

P is for Prehistoric Animals

And rather anachronistic, cave-dwelling, humanoid types! Each of which is marked HONG KONG on the handle/shaft of his axe, spear or club. Kent Sprecher credits some to Tim-Mee via either Sinclair gas stations in the 'States or Cracker Jack, but all mine were sourced 'over here'.

I picked this little lot (right-hand image) up over many years in one's and two's and a couple of larger lots that came with the plants, I'm pretty sure that at some point they were issued with the plants (copies of Marx Miniature Masterpiece accessories) but it may be a weird co-incidence? And with the paint and HK mark must be assumed to be Tim Mee copies - a safe assumption!

From the artwork I think we are looking at - clockwise from; Labradoodle Rex, Penguinman, Dimetropuma and Kuthunkacow! They certainly didn't come with plants when issued in the little header-carded (left-hand image), rack toy Prehistoric Animals poly-bags, of which I have . . .

. . . two examples, the contents of each are separately shown in the two images above. You get the three poses of caveman (around 32mm) and six dinosaurs/pterosaurs drawn from a known list of seven sculpts (Kent shows nine from Tim Mee), but with each set adding a new sculpt to my loose sample - there may be more?

They reappear as slightly smaller (30mm), gum-ball machine's capsule prizes (upper row) or Christmas cracker novelties, unmarked, unpainted and with sub-scale animals including something more mammalian (a unicorn-gazelle-goat!) for the cavemen to hunt!

While the lower row are smaller-copies still (28mm) and were all bought in Germany over a couple of years, so were probably wundertüten, or something similar from elsewhere in Europe; sobres/kiosko (Spain), bazaar (France)?

These were bough at the same times as the five smaller ones and from the same sellers, but may not/probably don’t go with them, the figures are a soft polyethylene (as the other two types were), while these animals are a harder polypropylene or ABS type material.

Finished to a better standard and with finer engraving, they are larger as well; the plesiosaur is around 60mm, but I suspect they are some kind of premium, or perhaps an early blind-bag collectable? The dimetrodon though is a distorted moulding, probably from too-early removal from the tool, causing shrinkage-fattening and a blister.

B is for Bellona Bell Tents

This is a long-planned follow-up to someone else's post, and really only to confirm my comments there, at the time (2015) and to look more closely at a comparison between the two versions of Bellona product and try to work out how they are related from a technical point of view.

The inner pair is undecorated, latex rubber; the outer pair is from the later vac-formed polystyrene-sheet which also contained a set of pup-tents (so crude I threw them away I think, or were they on another sheet?) and a more medieval-looking marquee or staff tent. I opened the 'doorways' with a sharp knife!

Holding the slight squeeze out of them, by counter-squeezing; when I obtained these about eleven-years ago (one of Andy Harfield's shows down in Kent I think) they were pretty-much pristine, and remained-so when they went into storage in 2011

However they have suffered slightly from the conditions in the shipping container, getting slight blemishes of shiny perished latex where they were touching each-other and the holding bag (that squeezed them out of shape slightly), yet otherwise they are still flexible and will need to be painted in the near future to protect them further, finding a paint for latex, or that is latex safe might need to be a consideration?

The more interesting thing about these latex items is that while they conform to the later vac-forms in both shape and catalogue codes, they are otherwise very different items, however, the one clearly lead to the other.

Above - not the best image (I've stopped-it right down), but the best I could do (try tipping your screen back slightly, or dipping your head, to see the vac-form's marks clearer), you can see how the three lines and the arrowed dink/blemish are carried on to the underside of the vac-form, from the surface of the latex moulding

The vac form has - like all these large sheet vac-forms - the better detail on the underside, as it is pulled onto the mould by suction, but that detail matches the finer detail on the surface of the smaller latex mould, as if it had been removed from the vac-form.

But it's not as clear as someone taking latex moulds from Bellona vac-forms and passing them off as Bellona (the cynical- or suspicions-thinking behind my original comment on Clive's post), because there is extra detail on the rubber versions; with these tents it's the air-flap 'barb' at the apex of the bell, and the overhang between bell and skirt-sides.

Likewise on the cottages over at Clive's blog, you can see the dormer windows on the rubber versions have an overhang to the roof which were smoothed back on the vac-forms. These features had to be removed from the tool/moulding to allow for the release of the vac-form, after cooling; a similar problem for the tooling engineers to that of 'undercuts' on dynamically posed figures.

How the one became the other is only to be guessed at, but must have involved taking a more substantial moulding from the tent's tool, to get a solid lump resembling the hollow latex product, removing all the overhangs, joining them together with the other tents on a level 'sheet', taking another, negative mould of that, and producing the metal final-tool as a third [positive] from the second [negative]?  .. . . . . ...  . . I think!

As an aside; there is a 12-panel 1930-50's British army bell-tent in the attic, my brother and I would spend a few weeks in it each summer, as kids. I keep meaning to get it out and set it up to see if the moths have been kind to it . . . or not.

It's interesting in being fully reversible, white on one side for winter-warfare and a non-standard camouflage on the other. By non-standard I mean it's not a WWII Micky-mouse black/grey cloud on green, nor sweeping swathes of contrasting colours, not a Denison smock type, nor a 1970's DPM, and will I suspect (I'm sure there are various labels on it and its canvas carry-all) date from either the inter-war period or the Korea era?

But it is a dead ringer for Bellona's little beauty, even to the air-flaps creating a spear's-head at the top if it's breezy!

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Here's one I made earlier!

As a Brucey-bonus, I knocked this up from a piece of cartridge-paper years ago, then added some slivers of weathered plywood for poles and coloured-it-in with art-markers. I think the 'eyes' were Tippex and another - green - marker!

If I did it again I'd run the poles all the way down and make them from something stronger as they have mostly broken-off and the smoke-hole now looks like Hannibal Lectors' mask! I'd probably also wet the paper after shaping to produce some sag between the poles; colouring-in after it had dried?

I took the pattern from something commercial like Fiddler's Green or Usbourn, or even a cut-out freebee in White Dwarf? It's basically a cone with the tip cut-off and it's a bit too geometric!